Portugal Day festival in Newark is canceled due to political strife, budget

Aristide Economopoulos/The Star-LedgerNewark Mayor Cory Booker, left, marches down Ferry Street with former governor Jon Corzine, center, Essex County Sheriff Armando Fontoura right and others in the 2009 Portugal Day parade in Newark on Ferry Street. NEWARK -- In the midst of a political slugfest, one of the biggest cultural events in Newark has been knocked out.

Portugal Day, an ethnic festival created in 1980 celebrating Portuguese culture, has become a political hot potato in the middle of a dust-up between two prominent Portuguese community leaders as the city’s election season comes to a close.

Organizers announced Tuesday that the event would be canceled after lack of communication between city administrators and dwindling funds. But city officials say fees the organizers are required to pay have been waived for the festival this year.

"This is an important cultural event that attracts hundreds of thousands of people and we’re firmly committed to making sure it happens," said Modia Butler, Mayor Cory Booker’s chief of staff.

Bernardino Coutinho, 72, founder of Portugal Day, said he is also dedicated to making sure the 30-year-old event continues. But bills have piled up too high, he said.

"Since the new laws, I got all that damage," Coutinho said as he pointed to a list of vendors he owes money to.

A 2007 policy originally asked organizers of all events to pay 80 percent of the city’s costs, said Coutinho’s son, Assemblyman Albert Coutinho (D-Newark).

Two years ago, organizers said the festival, which brings 500,000 people to the city’s Ironbound section, said the event was in danger of cancellation because of the new policy. In 2008, city officials revamped the ordinance, asking organizers to absorb only 20 percent of city costs. The festival was able to continue, and the fee has increased 10 percent each successive year until organizers pay half the costs.

Bernardino Coutinho said this year’s fees would have been $160,000 and that’s money his foundation just doesn’t have. He asked for the city’s promise to waive the fees in writing, but he said word never came.

"I’m not trusting anybody in the city of Newark," he said of his choice to cancel the festival.

Coutinho, who said he hopes the cancellation can open the door for conversation about next year’s event, blames interruption on the lack of help from city administrators and area Councilman Augusto Amador.

"We are both of Portuguese origin and both proud American citizens," Coutinho wrote in a letter to Amador. "Apparently we look the same, but actually we are very different."

In the same letter, Coutinho said he would not be voting for Amador, who holds the East Ward seat and is running for re-election next week.

Amador said that tightened restrictions enacted by the city led to an overall reduction in the cost of Portugal Day for the city. But the councilman said it was up to Coutinho’s foundation to pony up the funds to make it happen.

"It doesn’t seem fair to place the burden of organizing these events on the backs of the taxpayers," said Amador.

The festival used to be unregulated, with police making excessive overtime, and vendors not paying for permits, according to Amador. He said the cost of the festival had been cut from $600,000 under the Sharpe James administration to $300,000 under the Booker administration.

Coutinho, who said the city has helped with bills, argues that he lost $100,000 last June when a streetscaping project forced out vendors days before Portugal Day, which shuts down Ferry Street. He said it would be impossible for his foundation, which is about $250,000 in the hole, to hold the event this year.

"The city will lose something bright that people talk about," said Jose Moreira, owner of Ferry Street’s Casa Nova Grill, of the festival.

Coutinho maintains that an event of Portugal Day’s size needs time and money to get off the ground — things his foundation has simply run out of.

"I want to hold the day for the rest of my life because it’s something special I started," said Coutinho. "Portugal Day can go on if the politics get out of it."
By Victoria St. Martin and David Giambusso/Star-Ledger Staff

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The costs of the Newark Portugal Day festival shift to organizers

The costs of the Newark Portugal Day festival shift to organizeThe Newark Portugal Day festival turns 30 this weekend but once again, organizers cannot pay the money owed to the city to cover the cost. The festival, which draws hundreds of thousands of people every year, is considered the largest outside of Portugal thanks to strong Portuguese roots in Newark’s Ironbound district. But when the city passed a law last year shifting the cost of the festival to the organizers, the event was nearly canceled. This year organizers are still struggling to foot the bill. (Video by Nyier Abdou/The Star-Ledger)